Wait! Don't go! I'll do like the local TV news people during a sweeps period and try to suck you in with a little sensationalism. How's this:

IS CIGAR BURNED DOWN TO A BUTT? PHENOMENON OR PHONEY? IS HE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR WAGERING HEALTH? STAY TUNED.

Still with me? Good.

I really do think Cigar is burned out. They should call him Old Stogie now, even though he is trying for another page in history by being the first thoroughbred to win the B.C. Classic two consecutive times.

Fact - He lost two of his past three races. If you watched, you know that either jockey Jerry Bailey suddenly has forgotten how to ride - or Cigar no longer has it when Bailey asks him to respond.

I think he gets beat Saturday, but not by Dare And Go, the horse that ended Cigar's record-tying winning streak at 16 in August. The other horse that beat him, Florida-bred Skip Away, is not entered.

I like Editor's Note, who gets little respect but did win the Belmont and the Super Derby. Two others to watch: Preakness winner Louis Quatorze and Dramatic Gold.

Race caller Tom Durkin says about Cigar: ''He will take his place in history, but he needs to underline his greatness and put an exclamation point on it.''

I think he finishes with a question mark instead.

No Florida-breds in the Classic. But 11 Florida horses are scattered among five of the seven B.C. races.

I think two of them will win:

Jewel Princess will win the Distaff. Durkin agrees, saying she is ''perfect for the race.'' She was bred at Michael Sherman's Farnsworth Farms in Ocala - and Sherman has been Florida's top breeder for the past two seasons. The 4-year-old filly has beaten Serena's Song twice this year.

(If these names mean nothing to you, again I apologize. Hang with me because that shipment of free toasters might arrive before we're finished.)

Diplomatic Jet will win the Turf for 99-year-old breeder/owner Fred W. Hooper of Hooper Farms in Ocala. A chance exists that second place could go to another Florida-bred, Marlin, from Stonehedge Farm in Williston. The 3-year-old colt is one of about 482 horses that trainer D. Wayne Lukas has in the Cup races.

Numerically, Florida's best shot is the day's first race, the Sprint. A Florida-bred has won four of the previous 12, and four of our own are entered - Appealing Skier, Boundless Moment, Chaposa Springs and Jess C's Whirl. Two Florida-breds - His Honor and Michelle'sallhands (that is how it's spelled) - are in the Juvenile, and Same Old Wish is entered in the mile.

Jumping back to the Turf, next to Cigar, the story of the week has been 7-year-old Ricks Natural Star, little better than a plow horse bred in New Mexico and racing out of San Juan.

His owner, a 66-year-old vet named William Livingston, is, uh, as different as his horse. Obviously a pleasant man, he has been letting reporters ride his horse this week.

Tom Hammond, NBC's host for the day, said about Ricks Natural Star: ''I like a Cinderella story as much as the next guy, but this horse has no business in this race - and there's a chance something catastrophic could happen.''

Unfortunately, Ricks Natural Story could have people watching Saturday - for all the wrong reasons.

Have you ever watched someone make glue?

Post Script: Wekiva Springs, rated the nation's fifth-best horse and owned by locals Don Dizney and Jim English, is not running in the Classic. Too bad. He probably would have been the third favorite, behind Cigar and Dare And Go - and he would have been my pick.

SUNSHINE FOR 'NOLES, KNIGHTS: The Florida State Pow-Wow, a pep rally much like the Gator Growl, will be shown for 90 minutes on a tape-delay basis tonight at midnight and again Saturday at 3 p.m. on Sunshine Network. Tell me, 'Noles, if you're watching a pep rally on your living room TV, do you do the cheers? I bet you do.

The Central Florida-Georgia Tech football game will be provided live Saturday at 1 p.m. by Sunshine on a pay-per-view basis. Cable companies that I know have signed on, probably at $12.95, are Time-Warner in Orlando, CVI in East Orlando and TCI of Central Florida.

PROVERBIAL HARD PLACE FOR WFTV: The good news for WFTV-Ch. 9 is that it will show the final round of The Tour Championship on Sunday at 3 p.m. in case Tiger Woods decides to win this one, too. The bad news is that it has no place for the third round Saturday because it is carrying Virginia-FSU football in the late afternoon.

The local station wanted to carry Round Three at 1 a.m. Sunday for the fanatics, but ABC said ''no,'' instructing the local station to stay with ''normal 1 a.m. programming.''

In case you're making your late-night plans, ''normal 1 a.m. programming'' will be some kind of Halloween special.